Adani Group refutes report on pledged shares

Mumbai: The Adani Group has refuted a news report that it has not completed repayment of loans backed by shares worth $2.15 billion. The conglomerate said in a statement to exchanges late Tuesday it has completed 'full prepayment' of margin-linked share-backed financing aggregating to $2.15 billion. It also said all shares pledged for such loans have been released.

"All share backed facilities availed by the promoters have been paid off," said Adani Group in the release. It said the shares pledged by listed Adani companies in Adani Green, Adani Ports, Adani Transmission & Adani Enterprises have reduced. Shares of one Adani company have been used as collateral for loans by another group company.

As on March 27, 2023, the pledge positions of listed Adani Group companies in Adani Green stood at 3.5% as against 4.4% on December 31, 2022, according to the release. In Adani Ports, it was at 4.7% versus 17.3%, while in Adani Transmission, it was at 3.8% as against 6.6%. Such pledge positions in Adani Enterprises dropped to 0.6% from 2.7% in the December quarter.

It said only residual share pledges corresponding to 'Operating Company' facilities remained outstanding.

"OpCo (Operating Company) facilities are availed by respective OpCo, and are part of their existing debt structure, and no new OpCo facilities have been availed since the short-seller (Hindenburg) report," the Adani release said.

The Group said Operating Company's borrowings are based on the security of project assets, project cash flow and other such collaterals. In addition to such security, listed shares have been provided as additional collateral, it said. Such loans do not have covenants like cash margin calls, share price linked put options, which exist in share backed financing, the group said.

A report by The Ken on Tuesday raised questions on whether the group's promoters had repaid its loans against the shares they had pledged.